Rock and pop aren’t as self-referential to the extent hip-hop, blues, or country are—though rock and pop are a few tiny notches more than classical I attribute rock’s statistics to AC/DC’s songs about…rockin’, in the non-euphemistic sense.
Rock takes itself too seriously. You have to take classical seriously because it took a long time and lots of money to enter into it, and to even listen to it…this is all pre-Industrial Rev and modern recording. I guess some of that carries over to this day.
So imagine how odd it is for a pop rock band vocalist to sing about what the song is doing as he’s singing it. The meta- semiotics being smuggled in there is a goldmine. A goldmine of something.
Ivoryline – And The Truth Will End This lyrics.
Bonus: clean-cut rock bands (it’s a siding scale, generationally) should also use semi-gory figurative phrasing to up the cognitive dissonance. “I won’t stop ’til I turn your insides out”? Graphic!
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I might make a song that says, “I’m so emo that suspended second chords bring me to tears.” And I could sing that over a sus2. 😛
For added effect you could not resolve any of the suspended chords. You’d make everyone sad and tense…bonus psych points.
Very interesting post. It got me thinking about how self-reference is often assumed to be inherently wrong, a waste of time, etc – which it can be – but I’m glad rock isn’t more self-referential. I’m of the belief that hip-hop’s common abuse of self-reference results in the too-seriousness (neologism!) that taints many of its creators.
“Too-seriousity” might be better. 🙂